Midnight Kiss (7 page)

“I think I’ll just wait a while to call,” she said. “If I know my uncle, he’ll be on the road as soon as he gets my call.”

That made Drew smile. “I know I’m probably a poor substitute for the guy you wanted to be kissing at midnight, but—”

“Actually, Dr. Foley, I think maybe you’re a big improvement. And I might’ve gone a long time without knowing that.”

S
UNNY WAITED A LITTLE BIT
and then called her uncle, letting him know where she was, what had happened and that she was fine. While she was on the phone, Drew quickly downloaded the pictures of the bloody deer onto his laptop and deleted them from her camera. Then, while the fire roared, they sat on the leather sofa, very close together, with their feet propped up on the ottoman. At times their legs were on top of each other’s. They kissed now and then. Other times they talked. Sunny didn’t say too much more about Glen, and she didn’t want to hear any more about Penny.

She didn’t tell him that Glen wasn’t always nice to
her. Oh, it went a bit further than the comment about the wide hips. Glen was the kind of guy who stayed out too late “unwinding” after work, criticized her appearance as being not sexy enough for his tastes and when they did have time together, he was never happy with how they were going to spend it—almost as if he’d rather she be working. She had thought about snatching his phone and looking at old text messages, listening to voice mails, but she was a little afraid of what she might find so she convinced herself she was being paranoid. By the time she realized it wasn’t such a positive match, she was wearing a ring and had made deposits on wedding stuff.

It was too late.

But what she did want to ask Drew was, “What makes you think you’ll do any better the next time you have a relationship?”

He turned to her with a smile and said, “Good! I really wanted you to ask me that.” He ran the knuckle of his index finger along her cheek. “Do you have any idea what attracts men and women to each other?”

She just shook her head. “I thought it was a learned behavior….”

“Maybe, but I bet it’s more. I bet it’s a real primal mating thing that has no logical explanation. Like you see someone and right away,
bam,
you gotta be with that person. And I bet sometimes all the other elements fall into place, and sometimes they don’t. That kind of unexplainable thing—you see a woman on the other side of the room and your heart just about leaps out of your chest. You go brain-dead and you’re on automatic. All of a sudden you’re walking over to her and you don’t know why, you just know you have to get closer.
Everything about her pulls you like a magnet. You feel kind of stupid but you just walk up to her and say, ‘Hi, my name is Drew’ and hope for the best, even though she’s looking at you like you’re an idiot.”

“Slick,” she said. “Have you actually been able to use that technique very often?”

“I’ve never even tried it before, I swear. Listen, it’s kind of embarrassing to admit this, but that never happened with Penny. It was comfortable, nice, that’s all. No fireworks, no mind-blowing passion…”

“But you said it was good with her! You said sex was good.”

“I might be kind of easy to please in that department. The worst sex I ever had was actually pretty good. I want what
else
there is! How did what’s his name reel you in?” he asked.

Yo. Me and you!

“He wasn’t too slick, as a matter of fact. He thought he was. I never told him his great pick-up line didn’t impress me. Thing was, he was cute. And I worked all the time. I hadn’t been out on a date in a long time and he was…” She shrugged. “Handsome and interested.” She tilted her head and smiled at him. “I think I’m telling you all these things because you’re safe.”

His large hand closed over her shoulder. “I don’t want to be safe,” he said. “And I want to see you again.”

“Want to go off, live our solitary lives and meet back here for New Year’s Eve every year…kind of like a take-off on
Same Time Next Year?
”

“Did you know what Jack had planned for midnight?” Drew asked. “Did you write your resolution?”

She shook her head, then nodded. “I wrote that I had to stay away from men. He put it in the fishbowl.”

“At midnight everyone was going to pull out a resolution, ending up with someone else’s. Really corny, don’t you think?” he asked her, reaching into the pocket of his jeans. “It’s going to be for laughs, not for real. Some skinny girl could get a resolution to lose twenty pounds. But I wrote this one before I knew much about you.” He presented a slip of paper. “Look, Sunny—it’s midnight.”

“No, it’s not,” she said. “It’s like three minutes till.”

“We can stretch it out,” he said, handing her the paper. “I have no idea why I stuck this in my pocket. I put a different one in the fishbowl.”

She took it, opened it and read, “Start the new year by giving a new guy a chance.”

Her cheeks got a little pink. She was flattered, she was feeling lusty and attracted, but… “But Drew, I’m not going to see you again.”

“If you want to, you will…”

“You’re just looking for a replacement fiancée,” she said. “And long-distance relationships are even harder to keep going than the close kind.”

“We can start with football tomorrow. I have beer and wings. Unfortunately I have no car, but I bet you can wrangle one from the uncle.”

“That’s cute, but—”

“It’s midnight,” he said, closing in on her. His lips hovered right over hers. “Sunny, you just do something to me.”

“Thanks,” she said weakly. “Really, thanks. I needed to think I was actually attractive to someone.”

“You’re way more than that,” he said, covering her mouth in a deep and powerful kiss. He put his arms
around her waist and pulled her onto his lap, holding her against him. His head tilted to get a deeper fit over her mouth, their tongues played, her fingers threaded into his hair. At long last their lips parted. “Let’s just give it a try, see where it goes.”

“Can’t work. I live in the south. L.A. area….”

“Me, too.”

She jumped, startled. She slid off his lap. “You said Chico…”

“No, I didn’t. My family is in Chico. I lived there while I went to med school, while I dated Penny, but I don’t live there anymore. I’m in residency at UCLA Medical.”

She slid away from him. “Uh-oh…”

He shook his head. “I’m just saying we keep getting to know each other, that’s all. Neither one of us is likely to keep moving forward in a relationship that doesn’t feel good. We’re wiser—we know too much now. But for God’s sake, Sunny, what if it’s good? You gonna walk away from that?”

“I don’t want to take any chances!”

“I don’t blame you,” he said. “It’s midnight. Kiss in a new year. And just think about it.”

She looked into his eyes for a long moment, then she groaned and put the palms of her hands on his bristly cheeks and planted a good, wide, hot one on his mouth.

Against her open mouth he said,
“Yeah!”
Then he moved against her mouth, holding her tight, breathing her in, memorizing the taste of her.

A car horn penetrated the night. “Awww,” he groaned. “Your uncle broke every speed limit in Humboldt and Trinity Counties.”

“I told him to stay at Jack’s till midnight, but I knew he wouldn’t listen,” she said. She pulled away from him, slid down the couch and reached to the floor for her boots. Without looking at him she said, “Listen, thanks. Really, thanks. I needed to drop the rage for a while, have a real conversation with a guy, test the waters a little bit. Kiss—I needed to kiss.” She zipped the first boot. Then she looked at him. “I’m just not ready for more.”

“But you will be,” he said. “I can hang loose until you’re more comfortable.”

“I’ll think about that,” she said, reaching for the other boot.

The horn sounded again.

“He’s going to be pounding on the door real soon,” she said, zipping the boot.

“Will you come back tomorrow?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I need to think. Please understand.”

“But how will I find you? How will you find me?”

“Doesn’t Jack know your family? Don’t they know where you are?”

He grabbed her just as the horn blasted another time. He held her upper arms firmly but not painfully, and looked deeply into her eyes. “The second I saw you I lost my mind and wanted to sit right down by you and talk to you. I wanted a lot more than that, but I’m no caveman. Sunny, all I want is to know more about you, to know if there’s an upside to our mistakes—like maybe the right ones were meant to come along just a little later. I’d hate to stomp on a perfectly good spark if it’s meant to be a big, strong, healthy flame. I—”

There was a pounding at the door.

Sunny sighed and pulled herself from his grip. “Well, here’s a bright side for you,” she said. “I’m going to kill my uncle.”

S
UNNY THREW OPEN THE DOOR
and glared at her uncle Nathaniel. “Not real patient, are you?”

Nate had his hands plunged into his jacket pockets to keep warm. He glared back. “A—you didn’t go where you said you were going to go. And B—you didn’t come out when I honked. Something could have been
wrong!
”

“A—I’m twenty-five and can change my plans when it suits me. And B—something could have been
right!
” She turned toward Drew. “Thank you for everything. I’ll get this lunatic out of here.”

“Sunny,” Drew said. “UCLA Medical. Orthopedics Residency. I stand out like a sore thumb. I’m the one the senior residents are whipping and screaming at.”

She smiled at him. “I’ll remember. I promise.”

Sunny grabbed her jacket, her camera bag and pulled the door closed behind her as she left. Nathaniel let her pass him on the porch. She stomped a little toward the truck until her skinny heels stuck into the snow covered drive and she had to stop to pull them out.

“Must’ve been tough, walking from that wrecked car to the cabin in those boots,” Nate observed.

She glared over her shoulder at him. “He carried me.”

“Are you kidding me?” Nate said. “It was two miles!”

“Piggyback,” she said, trying to balance her weight on the balls of her feet until she got to the truck. She pulled herself up into the backseat of the extended cab with a grunt.

Annie, who sat in the front of the truck, had her arms crossed over her chest. When she looked into the backseat, there was a frown on her face. “Are you all right?” she asked grimly.

“Of course, I’m all right,” Sunny said. “Are you angry with me, too?”

“Of course not! I’m angry with Nathaniel!”

“Because…?”

“Because you were laughing with Drew Foley and I didn’t want to crash your party!”

Sunny laughed lightly. “Oh, you two,” she said. “It wasn’t a party,” she said just as her uncle was getting behind the wheel. “It was supposed to be a tour of the cabin, but it turned into a deer accident and a two-mile trek. Poor Drew. He had to carry me because of my stupid boots.”

“But were you ready to leave?” Annie asked, just as Nate put the truck in gear.

No, Sunny thought. Not nearly ready. She loved everything about Drew—his voice, his gentle touch, his empathy for kids and animals, his scent…. Oh, his scent, his lips, his
taste.
But she said, “Yeah, sure. Thanks for coming for me. Sorry if I was a bother.”

“Sorry if I was a lunatic,” Nate said, turning the truck around. “I have a feeling if I have daughters, Annie will have to be in charge.”

“First smart thing you’ve said in an hour,” Annie informed him.

“Well, I have a responsibility!” he argued.

Sunny leaned her head forward into the front of the cab, coming between them. “You two didn’t have your New Year’s kiss, did you? Because whew, are you ever pissy!”

“Some people,” Annie said, her eyes narrowed at Nate, “just don’t listen.”

W
INTER IN THE MOUNTAINS
is so dark; the sun wasn’t usually up before seven in the morning. But Sunny was. In fact, she’d barely slept. She just couldn’t get Drew out of her mind. She got up a couple of times to get something from the kitchen, but she only dozed. At five-thirty she gave up and put the coffee on.

By the time it was brewing, Annie was up. Before coming into the kitchen she started the fire in the great room fireplace. She shivered a bit even though she wore her big, furry slippers and quilted robe.

“Why are you up so early?” Sunny asked, passing a mug of coffee across the breakfast bar.

“Me? I’m always up early—we have a rigid feeding schedule for the horses.”

“This early?”

“Well, I thought I heard a mouse in the kitchen,” Annie said with a smile. “Let’s go by the fire and you can tell me why
you’re
up.”

“Oh, Annie,” she said a bit sadly, as she headed into the great room. “What’s wrong with me?”

“Wrong?” Annie asked. She sat on the big leather sofa in front of the fire and patted the seat beside her. “I think you’re close to perfect!”

Sunny shook her head. She sat on the sofa, turned toward Annie and pulled her feet under her. “I made up my mind I wasn’t getting mixed up with another guy after what Glen did to me, then I go and meet this sweetheart. He’s pretty unforgettable.”

“Oh? The guy from the bar?”

Sunny sipped her coffee. “Sounds funny when you put it that way. Drew—a doctor of all things. Not a guy from a bar. He was up at his sister’s cabin to study and only came into town to get a New Year’s Eve beer. I never should have run into him. And even though he’s totally nice and very sweet, I promised him I’d never get involved again, with him or anyone else. I told him I just wasn’t ready.”

“Smart if you ask me,” Annie said, sipping from her own steaming cup.

“Really?” Sunny asked, surprised. Wasn’t this the same woman who lectured her about letting go of the anger and getting on with her life?

Annie gave a short laugh. “After what happened to you? Why would you take that kind of chance again? Too risky. Besides, you have a good life! You have work you love and your parents are completely devoted to you.”

“Annie, they’re my parents,” she said. “They’re wonderful and I adore them, but they’re my parents! They don’t exactly meet all my needs, if you get my drift.”

Annie patted Sunny’s knee. “When more time has passed, when you feel stronger and more confident, you might run into a guy who can fill some of the blank spots—and do that without getting involved. Know what I mean?”

“I know what you mean,” Sunny said, looking down.
“Problem is, those kind of relationships never appealed to me much.”

“Well, as time goes on…” Annie said. “I imagine you’ll get the hang of it. You’re young and you’ve been kicked in the teeth pretty good. I understand—you’re not feeling that strong.”

Sunny actually laughed. “I had no idea how strong I was,” she said. “I got through the worst day of my life. I helped my mom return over a hundred wedding gifts…” She swallowed. “With notes of apology.”

“You’re right—that takes strength of a very unique variety. But you told me you don’t feel too confident about your ability to know whether a guy is a good guy, a guy you can really trust,” Annie said.

Sunny sighed. “Yeah, it’s scary.” Then she lifted her gaze and a small smile flitted across her mouth. “Some things are just obvious, though. You know what Drew said is the best and worst part of his job as an orthopedic surgery resident? Kids. He loves being able to help them, loves making them laugh, but it’s really hard for him to see them broken. What a term, huh? Broken? But that’s what he does—fixes broken parts.”

“That doesn’t mean you’d be able to count on him to come through for the wedding dance…” Annie pointed out.

But Sunny wasn’t really listening. “When that deer was lying on the hood of the SUV I tried not to look, but he was taking pictures for the insurance and I had to take a peek out the windshield. He gave the deer a pet on the neck. He looked so sad. He said it made him feel bad and he hoped the deer didn’t have a family somewhere. Annie, you grew up around here, grew up on a farm—do deer have families?”

“Sort of,” she said softly. “Well, they breed. The bucks tend to breed with several doe and they run herd on their families, keep ’em together. They—”

“He’s got a soft spot,” Sunny said. “If I ever gave a new guy a chance, it would be someone with a soft spot for kids, for animals….”

“But you won’t,” Annie said, shaking her head. “You made the right decision—no guys, no wedding, no marriage, no kids.” Sunny looked at her in sudden shock. “Maybe later, when much more time has passed,” Annie went on. “You know, like ten years. And no worries—you could meet a guy you could actually trust in ten years, date a year, be engaged a year, get married and think about a family… I mean, women are now having babies into their forties! You have lots of time!”

Sunny leaned toward her. “Did you hear me? He loves helping kids. He carried me to the cabin—two miles. He petted the dead dear! And he should have broken the heels off my Stuart Weitzmans so I could walk in the snow, but he carried me instead because I just couldn’t part with—” Sunny looked at Annie with suddenly wide eyes. “What if he’s a wonderful, perfect, loving man and I refuse to get to know him because I’m mad at Glen?”

Annie gave Sunny’s hand a pat. “Nah, you wouldn’t do that. You’re just taking care of yourself, that’s all. You don’t have a lot of confidence right now. You’re a little afraid you wouldn’t know the right guy if he snuck up on you and kissed you senseless.”

Sunny touched her lips with her fingertips. “He kisses
great.
”

“Oh, Sunny! You let him
kiss
you?”

Sunny jumped up so fast she sloshed a little coffee
on her pajamas. “I have plenty of confidence, I always have,” she said. “I started my own business when I was twenty and it’s going great. I know I get help from my dad, but I was never unsure. And I can’t even think about being alone another ten years! Or sleeping with guys I don’t care about just to scratch an itch—bleck!”

Annie shrugged and smiled, looking up at her. “All part of protecting yourself from possible hurt. I mean, what if you’re wrong? Scary, huh?”

“Oh, crap, one hour with Drew and I knew what was wrong with Glen! I just couldn’t…” She stopped herself. She couldn’t stop that wedding!

“You said it yourself—you shouldn’t get mixed up with another guy,” Annie reminded her softly. “You wouldn’t want to risk getting hurt.” Annie stood and looked Sunny in the eyes. “Give it eight or ten years. I’m sure the right guy will be hanging around just when you’re ready.”

Sunny stiffened so suddenly she almost grew an inch. She grabbed Annie’s upper arm. “Can I borrow your truck? I have something important to do.”

“In your pajamas?” Annie asked.

“I’ll throw on some jeans and boots while you find your keys,” she said.

Sunny dashed to the kitchen, put her coffee mug on the breakfast bar and as she was sailing through the great room Annie said, “Sunny?” Sunny stopped and turned. Annie took a set of keys out of the pocket of her quilted robe and tossed them.

Sunny caught them in surprise, then a smile slowly spread across her face. Who carries their car keys in their robe? “You sly dog,” she said to Annie.

Annie just shrugged. “There are only two things you have to remember. Trust your gut and take it one day at a time.” Annie raised a finger. “One day at a time, sweetheart. Nice and easy.”

“Will you tell Uncle Nate I had an errand to run?”

“You leave Uncle Nate to me,” Annie said.

B
Y THE TIME
S
UNNY WAS
standing in front of the cabin door, it still was not light out. It was only six-thirty, but there were lights on inside and the faintest glow from the east that suggested sunrise. Drew opened the door.

“We never open the door that fast in L.A.,” she said.

“There weren’t very many possibilities for this part of town,” he said. And he smiled at her. “I’m pretty surprised to see you. Coming in?”

“In a minute, if you still want me. I have to tell you a couple of things.”

He lifted a light brown brow. “About my nose? My hips?”

“About me. First of all, I never lie. To anyone else or to myself. But my whole relationship with Glen? I wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but it was one lie after another. I knew it wasn’t going well, I knew we should have put on the brakes and taken a good, honest, deep look at our relationship. But I couldn’t.” She glanced down, then up into his warm brown eyes. “I couldn’t stop the wedding. It had taken on a life of its own.”

“I understand,” he said.

“No, you don’t. It was the wedding that had become a monster—a year in the making. Oh, Glen should take some responsibility for going along with it in
the beginning, but it was entirely my fault for turning off my eyes, ears and
brain
when it got closer! I’d invested in it—passion and energy and money! My parents had made deposits on everything from invitations and gowns to parties! And there was an emotional investment, too. My friends and family were involved, praising me for the great job I was doing, getting all excited about the big event! Not only did I feel like I was letting everyone down, I couldn’t give it up.”

“I understand,” he said again.

“No, you don’t! The wedding had become more important than the marriage! I knew I should snoop into his text messages and voice mails because lots of things were fishy, but I didn’t because it would ruin the wedding! I should have confronted our issues in counseling, but I couldn’t because I knew the only logical thing to do was to postpone the wedding! The wedding of the century!” A tear ran down her cheek and he caught it with a finger. “I knew it was all a mistake, but I really didn’t see him not showing up at the last minute as a threat, so that made it easy for me to lie when everyone asked me if there were any clues that it would happen.” She shook her head. “That he would leave me at the altar? I didn’t see that coming. That we weren’t right for each other? I managed to close my eyes to that because I was very busy, and very committed. That’s the truth about me. There. I traded my integrity for the best wedding anyone had ever attended in their life! And I’ve never admitted that to anyone, ever!”

“I see,” he said. “Now do you want to come in?”

“Why are you awake so early?” she asked with a sniff.

“I don’t seem to need that much sleep. I’d guess
that was a real problem when I was a kid. Sunny, I’m sorry everything went to hell with your perfect wedding, but I’m not threatened by that. I’m not Glen and I have my own mistakes to learn from—that wouldn’t happen with me. And guess what? You’re not going to let something like that happen again. So the way I see it, we have only one thing to worry about.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Breakfast. I was going to have to eat canned beans till you showed up. I don’t have a car. Now you can take me to breakfast.” He grinned. “I’m starving.”

“I brought breakfast. I grazed through Uncle Nate’s kitchen for groceries,” she explained. “I wasn’t going to find anything open on the way over here.”